Invasion of Adorable Children

I talked with Emma about her Halloween on the phone yesterday, and she said: "I am a bat, and Madeline is a witch!" I said, "Oooo... witches are so scary!" and she said, "Aunt Amy, bats are scary too."

I met all the children I will be tutoring for the next seven weeks, today: Wilnecia, Brianna, Derrick and Cierra. They are all adorable in equal measure, and I'm really looking forward to reading with them, and working on subtraction and multiplication. I think third grade was one of the last years I really enjoyed going to school, so hanging out with kids this age, and reviewing 3rd grade material feels warm and nostalgic.

I think the hard part of this project, for me at least, will be working with the teachers. They are overworked, underpaid, and seem completely hardened towards the children. I spent 10 minutes today, listening to one teacher yell at her class because they left some candy wrappers on the floor. "You all live like animals, like pigs! That's the last time I'll bring anything fun into this room."

I'm sure my perspectives will change after two months of working with these kids, but I hope I never get to the point where I can't see how awesome they are just inherently.
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I really love living and working on a team. I eat every meal with these people, we sleep in the same room, we do the same work outs, ride to work together, everything else together. In a strange way, I feel like Americorps is rekindling my desire to do mission work; as well as reshaping my general thoughts on that subject. I think that's another post though.

Hope everyone is well, and I can't wait for Christmas.